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Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Joseph R.G. DeMarco |  |
Joe DeMarco lives and writes in Philadelphia and Montréal. Before devoting his time more fully to fiction and non-fiction projects he was Editor-in-Chief of The Weekly Gayzette (Philadelphia); Editor-in-Chief of NGL, a national magazine; and has been an editor or contributing editor for a number of publications including Il Don Gennaro, a national Italian-American magazine. A number of his plays have been produced in Philadelphia, NY, and elsewhere around the U.S. A serious student of sociological issues, his work has been published in The International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family (Macmillan); and two of his articles appear in the Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinites (ABC CLIO), and The Journal of Homosexuality He won "Best Magazine Editor" Reader's Choice Poll Award for 2007 and 2005 from Preditors & Editors. One of his greatest loves is mystery (all kinds); he has written a number of mystery stories. Just published is a book of stories featuring P.I. Matco Fontans, CRIMES ON LATIMER, from Lethe Press. The second book in his Marco Fontana series, A BODY ON PINE follows the first, MURDER ON CAMAC. He also has an abiding interest in alternate history, speculative fiction, young adult fiction, vampires, werewolves, science fiction, the supernatural, mythology, and more. You can learn more at www.josephdemarco.com | |
Web Advisor Jason Li |  |
Jason was in on the redesign of the site from the very beginning. He has given his advice and fixed problems as the arose and continues to do so. Though he is extremely busy with two other major facets of his life, he never fails to lend a hand when needed. He is currently working on revamping the archives and that should be up and working some time on 2006 which will make readers and writers happy. Jason is also creative in his own right and loves writing stories of his own as well as working on translations of Chinese literature. Jason is also an artist and some of his work can be seen at www.goldenfleecegallery.com | |
Art Director Gin E. L. Fenton |  |
| Gin, a creative workaholic, is art director and illustrator for several magazines and publishing companies creating book covers and illustrations for both print and online magazines, and books of all kinds. She loves to keep busy, and eats, sleeps and breathes for her Art in all its forms. Gin has painted all her life, and has mastered many mediums including oils, pastels, ink washes, watercolors, computer-aided art, graphic and web design, clay sculpture, soft sculpture, and is an accomplished glamour portrait artist. She published her own fantasy art ezine, Merlin's Dreams Zine. Preferring primarily figurative subjects, she loves creating dramatic illustrations for mystery, crime, suspense, glamour, pinup, romance, noir, intrigue, human interest, and fantasy stories, articles, and books. She lives in Texas with her retired physician husband, who dotes on her, even though she sometimes neglects him for her computer and drawing tablet. Her website: www.artpinups.com E-mail: gin@ginelf.com Portfolio Gallery : http://artisthome.com/Folio/folio.htm | |
First Senior Editor Barry Ergang |
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Barry Ergang is shown here holding Duncan, the West Highland White | |
Assistant Editor Pam Skochinski |  |
It all began with Nancy Drew. Many a mystery writer can point at Nancy as the beginning of their obsession with mystery. Pam Skochinski is no different. An life-long reader of mysteries, in 1997 she tried her hand at writing one. Since then, she has had over thirty short stories published in various e-zines and print publications. She currently lives in Southern California with her husband and three children. You can find out more about her at www.pamskochinski.com | |
Assistant Editor Charles Mossop |  |
Retired after a thirty-two year academic career, Charles now lives on Vancouver Island on Canada 's west coast where he writes historical fiction, works in his garden and continues his study of classical guitar. A lover of mystery stories, his flash fiction has appeared in Flashshot, and his short stories in Over My Dead Body, Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, and in the Amazon Shorts Program. He also contributed to the Anthology Aleatory's Junction, published by Double Dragon Publishing in 2006, and to the writer's resource book The Muse on Writing ( Double Dragon, 2005). His novel Jade Hunter will appear in 2007 from Double Dragon. Charles is also a monthly contributor to the online resource magazine The Muse Marquee where he writes on historical fiction and manages the historical fiction department. Charles's stories are usually set in fifteenth century China or eighteenth century Europe , and in the latter case he specializes in maritime history and life aboard wooden-walled ships of war. As he says, “Murder and intrigue can be found everywhere and in any time period. All you have to do as a writer is select a time and place to put them.” http://cmossop0.tripod.com | |
Assistant Editor/Columnist Tim Matson |  |
Tim Matson lives with his wife Susan, and their two miniature schnauzers Asta and Archie, in a suburb of St. Paul, MN. When he isn't toiling away at his day job, Tim spoils his wife and dogs mercilessly, and finds time to write when they take naps on the couch. His stories have been accepted at Mysterical-E and Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine. He is currently working on his second novel. Tim can be reached at: matsonatmystericale@gmail.com | |
Columnist Jim Doherty |  |
A police officer for more than ten years like his character Dan Sullivan, began his law enforcement career as a reserve cop in Berkeley , California , while simultaneously working on his bachelor's degree at Cal . Sullivan stories have previously appeared in Writers' Journal , Blue Murder , Hand Held Crime , Over My Dead Body! , and the upcoming anthology The Race Is On . Sullivan is also the protagonist of Jim's first (and still unpublished) novel, An Obscure Grave , which was a finalist in the 2004 Debut Dagger competition conducted by the British Crime Writers Association. In addition to his fiction, Jim is also the author of two non-fiction books. Just the Facts – True Tales of Cops & Criminals is a collection of true-crime articles, one of which, “Blood for Oil,” won the 2005 Western Writers of America Spur Award in the Short Non-Fiction Category. Raymond Chandler – A Master of American Noir is a series of lectures on Chandler 's early work available as an e-book on the Barnes & Noble website, and used in conjunction with an on-line course about Chandler that Jim teaches. A native San Franciscan, Jim currently lives in Chicago with his lovely wife, Katy. His website can be found here: http://www.deadlyserious.com/JimDoherty | |
Columnist Gerald So |  |
Fiction Editor for The Thrilling Detective Web Site, Gerald is also a reviewer for Crimespree Cinema and moderator of the crime TV and film forum CrimeSeen. He's always looking for more to read or watch. | |
Columnist Christine A. Verstraete |  |
| Christine A. Verstraete is an award-winning journalist whose nonfiction and fiction has been published in various newspapers and magazines. She is working on a mystery novel and has had short fiction published in Mysterical-E, Orchard Press Mysteries, Mouth Full of Bullets, Flashshot, Flashquake, and Futures Mysterious Anthology. Her story, "The Witch Tree" was a recent contest winner at Echelon Press. Contact her at http://cverstraete.com | |
Columnist Byron McAllister |  |
Always intrigued by whatever he construed as basic, Byron's interests moved through several sciences then through mathematics, philosophy, and now--inevitably--to the most basic of all, mystery writing, which he does mostly in conjunction with his spouse. Ignoring some technical and historical papers written in his former career, his writing credits include a couple of dozen “mainstream” (i.e. non-mystery) poems, half a dozen mystery short stories, another six mystery-oriented poems, and three novels, Undercover Nudist , Runaway Nudist, and To Kill a Nudist, all of which appeared first as ebooks and can be found here and there on the web, e.g. at http://www.writewordsinc.com and, in fact your local bookstore can order it, although they may not be willing to simply stock it. Byron assumes that this wee bit of writing experience plus his considerable age give him the right to have strong but variable opinions on whatever crosses his mind. He lives in a cold climate, as do many of his faithful readers. | |
Columnist Jan Christensen |  |
Jan Christensen's main interests are reading and writing, mostly mysteries. She's had over fifty short stories published, several right here in Mysterical-e, including the premier issue, and has been nominated twice for a Derringer Award. Several of the now-unfortunately-defunct magazines who have published her work are: Red Herring Mystery Magazine, Whispering Willows Mystery Magazine, Nefarious - Tales of Mystery, Detective Mystery Stories, Hardluck Stories, EWG Presents, and Vacant Funhouse. But others are still in existence such as Long Story Short, Orchard Press, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Spinetingler, Crime and Suspense, and several others. She's also had stories in anthologies, one in last year's Wolfmont Publishing's Carols and Crimes, Gifts and Grifters, all proceeds going to Toys for Tots, and two in Whortleberry Press's, Strange Mysteries and It Was A Dark and Stormy Halloween. Her first novel, Sara's Search came out in 2004. Jan's office is a lounge chair and a laptop in the 40-foot motorhome she and her husband live in fulltime. She is beginning to call herself a minimalist because of her love of short stories and an uncluttered life. More about Jan: www.janchristensen.com | |
Columnist Nicholas Fuller |  |
| Born Canberra 1983. Lived in Brussels 1993 - 1996; returned Canberra 1997. Currently studying Arts at the Australian National University - Honours in History this year, in English next. Edited Gladys Mitchell's Sleuth's Alchemy for Crippen and Landru, have contributed articles to CADS and to the Margery Allingham festschrift. Interests: detective fiction (favourite authors: Gladys Mitchell, John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, GK Chesterton and HC Bailey), Doctor Who and European history (Rome and England from the Wars of the Roses on, particularly C19th - present). | |
INTERVIEWS Barbara Hodges |
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Barbara M. Hodges lives on the central coast of California with her husband Jeff, two basset hounds, Ophelia and Hamlet, as well as with a sassy ginger-striped feline, Wallace. Barbara is the author, or co-author of seven published works of fiction and is also the host of a monthly broadcast show: No Limits, on Blog Talk Radio. Where she interviews those involved in the field of writing. | |
Staff Lance Zarimba |  |
| Lance Zarimba has short stories published in the Mayhem in the Midlands anthology and Who Died In Here? anthology. He has won the VLP short story contest and his "Secret Santa" story has appeared on Without A Clue web site. He writes a "Therapy" series where Taylor, an occupational therapist, stumbles across murders and mayhem and is helped, but mostly hindering, in solving the crimes with his friends. | |
A Title YOUR NAME |  |
OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND We are also always looking for people with good ideas. | |
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE |
Writers |
John M. Floyd's short stories, articles, and humor pieces have appeared in more than 200 publications, including The Strand Magazine , Murderous Intent , Grit , Woman's World , Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine , and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine . A 2007 Derringer Award winner, he has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and writes a weekly column at Criminalbrief.com. John is also the author of three collections of short fiction: Rainbow's End (2006), Midnight (2008), and Clockwork (coming in October 2010). I. Van Laningham majored in anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle; both protested against and served in the Vietnam war; worked for the USPS as a tool-and-parts clerk and a rural mail carrier; was a joat for a mobile home park, obtained a forklift operator's license, worked in restaurants, sold shoes, went bust as a luthier and clerked in bookstores; went back to Vietnam for three weeks in 2002, works for Overstock.com as a software engineer and lives in Salt Lake City. Andi Holmes's home page is at: http://www.andi-holmes.comMark Murphy is a freelance copy editor. His story “Murder for a Good Cause” appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of Mysterical-E. His mystery fiction has also appeared in Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine. James A. Haught was born in 1932 in a small West Virginia farm town. He graduated from a rural high school with 13 students in the senior class. In Charleston, he became a teen-age apprentice printer at the Charleston Daily Mail in 1951. The Charleston Gazette offered him a full-time news job in 1953. He has been at the Gazette ever since - except for a few months in 1959 when he was press aide to Sen. Robert Byrd. He has been police reporter, religion columnist, feature writer and night city editor and an investigative reporter for 13 years. In 1983 he was named associate editor, and in 1992 he became editor. Haught has won 20 national newswriting awards, and is author of nine books and 70 national magazine articles. He also is a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine. He has four children, 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. His books include “Holy Horrors” (1990), “Science in a Nanosecond” (1990), “Holy Hatred” (1995), “2,000 Years of Disbelief” (1996), “Honest Doubt” (2007), “Amazon Moon” (2007), “Fascinating West Virginia” (2008), “Fading Faith” (2010), plus a 1992 art book featuring lovers depicted by master artists. Richard Hart has been a teacher and a school administrator in Peoria IL for over 40 years. He's always been a fan of mysteries, so when he decided to do some writing in his free time, that was the genre he chose. He's completed one unpublished mystery novel. He's also had a short story with the same hero published in Mysterical-e. Andrew MacRae is a misplaced Midwesterner living this past twenty-five years in northern California. His writing ranges from articles about local history to poetry, to short stories of magical realism and of course, mysteries. Marilyn M. Fisher was born in New York, moved to Virginia as an adult, and now lives in Tennessee. She was a professor of literature in all three states. Her two mysteries, The Case of the Three Dead Horses and He Trots the Air take place in Virginia. In “Heintz is Dead,” she changes the setting to Buffalo, her birthplace, of which she writes realistically, wryly and always affectionately of the ambience of the city and the great Buffalo snowfalls during which anything can happen. Rosemary and Larry Mild’s newest novel is CRY OHANA, Adventure and Suspense in Hawaii (October 2010). Fresh Fiction calls it “an uplifting story of family and love, as well as an extremely suspenseful novel with a very satisfying ending.” The Milds also coauthor the Paco and Molly Mysteries: BOSTON SCREAM PIE, HOT GRUDGE SUNDAY and LOCKS AND CREAM CHEESE. They teach “Writing Mystery and Thriller Fiction” at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. Their series of four short stories featuring Slim O. Witts, soft-boiled detective, appeared in Mysterical-E from Fall 2009 through Summer 2010. Sybil A. Johnson now concocts mystery fiction from her home in Southern California, after a long career in the computer industry. Her work has appeared in Mysterical-E, Crimson Dagger and Silver Moon Magazine. One of her stories is scheduled for an upcoming issue of Spinetingler Magazine. Sybil is a member of MWA, Sisters In Crime, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. She is currently at work on her first mystery novel. Steven Kuehn is an archaeologist with the Illinois State Archaeological Survey. The idea for this story arose several years ago during a rather boring banquet at a regional archaeology conference, at which time killing the speaker seemed like an exceptionally good idea. This is his first published story. Numerous other short stories and several novels featuring Jacob Caine await completion. Albert Tucher gives his series character, prostitute Diana Andrews, a rare day off with this story. More than thirty short stories about her have appeared in print and online publications, including Mysterical-e and the anthology The Best American Mystery Stories 2010. He also has a series of unpublished novels about his character. Barnali Saha is a transplanted Indian currently living in Nashville, TN. He is a compulsive blogger, an amateur photographer, and a self-taught creative writer. He enjoys writing short stories and articles. His works have been published in several newspapers and magazines in India (The Indian Express, The Statesman, Woman’s Era, Muse India, etc.) and in several e-journals in the USA (Mused- Bella Online Literary Review, The Smoking Poet, Fiction at Work, etc.). Vero G. Caravetta has been a film buff and a mystery fan since he can remember. He has reviewed film for a number of small publications in the Midwest. Since his move East to New York, he has thrown himself into his work Off-Off Broadway. He would eventually like to try his hand at fiction. |
Artists |
Gin E. L. Fenton -- see bio above |
Founder Eva Batonne |
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Denise Batonne began writing professionally when she was hired as researcher for a small production company in Santa Monica.The position evolved into writer/producer on the project, The Shaping Of America, a series of historical spots on American history. A forerunner to the popular Ken Burns style of dramatic portrayals of historical figures and events, The Shaping Of America featured narrators Sally Kellerman, Robert Guillaume, Dennis Weaver and was voted Favorite Series. Denise has worked for Brentwood News and Venice Art Magazine interviewing and reviewing the work of personalities such as Dizzy Gillespie and Chris Connelly, editor of Premiere Magazine. Co-Editor of Techno Noir with Jeffrey Marks, her story "Mixo-Matic" appears in its pages. "The Ticket," Denise's first short story, was featured as Publisher's Choice in Futures magazine. Denise has a strong background in film and theatre. She left Mysterical-E in early 2004 to pursue her own writing and other interests. Her book RESSURECTION DIVA, a literary crime novel, comes out in August 2007 from ZUMAYA PUBLICATIONS. | |
